South African Start-up Magnevane Wins Top Honours At Global Unicorn
South African Start-up Magnevane Wins Top Honours At Global Unicorn. South African start-up business Magnevane scooped the Global Unicorn top honours recently for the business with the highest investment potential. South African executive and business owner Gareth Rees was part of the team which claimed victory against several start-ups with enormous investment potential from various parts of the world.
“We are chuffed that years of hard work and perseverance are now paying off. There is a clear need for energy efficient products to be prioritised not only in South Africa but around the world, as power sources become increasingly depleted and environmental pressures mount,” Rees told Independent Online.
“Magnevane is a global story with South African beginnings in the town of Nelspruit, where inventors Stephen Nicholson and Mike Spencer first came up with the idea of using super magnets in compressed air motors to create a tight seal between the sliding vane and motor housing,” Rees explained further.
“Later in 2017 Jiva Remtula, a Portuguese investor and now Magnevane’s global CEO, provided for the series A funding allowing the acquisition of precision manufacturing facilities in Trofa Portugal, as well as the development and patenting of the first range of Magnevane products. In this way, Magnevane was born as a global organisation, made possible only because of the talent, resources and vision of three parties from different corners of the globe.” Rees said.
Magnevane is a disruptive clean tech company that has patents for a range of highly efficient industrial equipment. It uses super magnets to increase efficiency of sliding vane equipment by up to 60%. The primary uses of the technology are in pneumatics, fluid pumps, compressors and heat pumps. The Global TAM for its technology is just under $100bn. The company has a precision manufacturing facility in Portugal, 18 years of patents remaining and are ready for exponential scaling.
Magnevane registered 4 patents in 80 countries in 2017, and closed their first commercial deal with Sappi pulp and paper the same year. Also in 2017 Magnevane secured commercial pilots with two large mining houses in South Africa, Harmony Gold and Impala Platinum. All the commercial pilots were extremely successful and created demand for the product.
